


Kismet

by eveshka



Series: Tales of the Dawn King [37]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-12-10 15:11:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11694288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eveshka/pseuds/eveshka
Summary: Do you remember, Noct, the last time we looked at the stars? How vast the future seemed?





	Kismet

**Author's Note:**

> Rating: T  
> Warnings: None  
> Characters: Noctis Lucis Caelum, Ignis Scientia  
> Time Period: The night before the retaking of Insomnia  
> Location: The overlook to Insomnia  
> (Takes place after Chapter 5 of The Dawn King in the Dawn King Cycle.)

He wasn’t sure how long it had been, but he could have sworn he’d just bid Umbra farewell when a soft sound made Noctis open his eyes and look over to the side of the haven opposite the tent. Ignis sat quietly, legs crossed to hang over the edge of the rock formation, hands folded in his lap. If Noctis hadn’t known differently, he’d have thought Ignis was watching the sky. But Ignis was blind, and the stars had long been missing. “Ignis?”

“Ah, Noct… did I wake you? Apologies.”

His voice sounded so strained that Noctis found himself rising in concern. “What’s wrong, Ignis? Can’t sleep?” He rose from the chair and stretched his arms as he moved towards his friend and advisor.

“Mmm. Do you remember, Noct, the last time we looked at the stars? How vast the future seemed?" Ignis sounded infinitely sad, and it knocked the wind from Noctis’ chest. “Altissia, the jewel of Accordo and marriage… the brightest stars in the skies seemed to pale against the life we’d planned. And now they’re gone. The stars, the plans… and if I’m being quite frank, the future as well.”

Noctis slipped down onto the rock beside Ignis, reaching to bring an arm around the other man. “Honestly, you’re getting downright lugubrious, Ignis.” He gave Ignis a tug, attempting to press his advisor’s head against his shoulder, a trick Ignis had done to him more times than he cared to admit.

“Morose would have sufficed, Noct,” Ignis replied, and then sighed as he was manhandled into place. “And yes, I am feeling rather morose at this moment, knowing how very short the future has become, and how much of it was wasted.”

“Hey, here, lean back, rest your head and close your eyes.” It wasn’t hard to turn Ignis, to lay the man backwards with his head in Noctis’ lap. “Now, pick my constellation. Up there, which one will be mine, do you think? The Guardian? Or maybe The Savior?”

Ignis lifted his hand and pointed skyward for a moment, unerring in his movement, even though his vision was as lost as the stars. Noctis knew which constellation Ignis was seeing in his mind, even without the stars above them. “That one. The Warrior of Light.”

“Wasn’t that given to the first of the Lucii Caelum?” Noctis replied, scrunching his nose in an attempt to remember.

“It was not, actually. It was given to the First Chosen. The man who fell and became the Accursed.”

“Ardyn.” Noctis replied, closing his eyes in a wince. “Must _everything_ I touch have been tainted by him?”

“Noct, have a care. Ardyn was a great man pushed to extremes far beyond our imagination. To have been raised so high, and then be named Accursed… can you not see how much damage that might do to a man?”

“Ignis, how can you say that after everything he’s done… to Insomnia, to Luna… to _you_?” Noctis opened his eyes and looked down to the man resting casually against him. The physical roles might have been reversed, but the emotional ones were as they ever had been. He threaded his fingers into the silence of Ignis’ hair, tugging lightly to draw his advisor’s attention back to him and the question he’d asked.

It took Ignis another few moments to voice his thoughts. “Indeed, it was only _after_ that I could learn to forgive, when I gained the understanding and the strength to let the anger go. In the ten years that have passed, I have learned much about the man who became Accursed, and in many ways, I can almost sympathize.”

 

Noctis stilled his fingers and looked to Ignis quietly. He still didn’t know what had happened, still had questions about Altissia and Zegnautus, but he couldn’t ask. There simply wasn’t the time. “I can’t do that. You’re a stronger man than I am, Ignis. You always have been.”

“Nonsense, Noct. I’ve had ten years to work through all of this, to learn and make my way through understanding. If…” Ignis closed his mouth around the words and his shoulders dropped against Noct’s leg. “Apologies. That was unkind.”

“Unkind or not, it’s the truth. I don’t have ten years. My future… you’re right, Ignis. My future is that constellation. And come what may, I’ll end this. I’ll turn into light and scatter myself like stars in the sky if that’s what it takes.” Noctis could feel Ignis tense at his words. “And before you say anything, I know. I get it. Duty, destiny, fate, you don’t have to remind me. I’d do it regardless. For you.”

“For me…? Noct, surely not.” Ignis reached out to pat the stone around him and sit up.

Noctis stayed him by putting his hand on Ignis’ shoulder. “For _you_ , so you can feel the sun on your face. So you can rise to greet each dawn and know it’s me.”

“Noct…” Ignis started, but Noctis pressed his hand gently against Ignis’ shoulder to silence him.

“Let me do this, Ignis. Let me give you the dawn. It’s the last thing I _can_ give you.” Tears were welling in his eyes, and Noctis looked up at the empty sky, glaring at the darkness as if it was his own personal enemy. Perhaps it was a futile gesture, but his tears only tracked down his cheeks instead of falling to dampen his companion’s face.

He shouldn’t have been surprised that Ignis knew. Softly, his advisor’s fingers brushed wet skin, drawing away the tears. “It is this moment that I will treasure more than the dawn, Noct.”

Noctis shoved lightly at his friend, embarrassment coloring his cheeks and his voice. “Shut up. Go to sleep. I’ll keep watch.”

“Is that an order?”

“You know it. Goodnight Ignis.”

“Good night, Noct.”

 

As Ignis closed his eyes, Noctis looked up to the empty sky, seeing in his mind the stars that should have been there, remembering the that night in Caem, and the hope he’d felt then. The world had changed, Noctis had changed. His hopes had not. His future was still in the stars, but now he knew which ones. The Warrior of Light. Well, he was busy taking things back from Ardyn, might as well take that too.

**Author's Note:**

> #Ignoctweek


End file.
